What to know about another blowout of Indiana
No. 5 Ohio State crushed Indiana 54-7 Saturday night in Bloomington to stay perfect in Big Ten play.
“I thought we were aggressive across the board,” coach Ryan Day told reporters after the game. “We’re always aggressive throwing the football, but we also ran the ball, and I thought the offensive line moved the line of scrimmage and I thought the defensive line stopped the run, and anytime we play these conference games that’s the first thing we have to do.”
Here are five things to know about the game:
1. C.J. Stroud remained red hot.
Since taking a week off to rest a sore shoulder, Ohio State’s redshirt freshman quarterback has been nearly unstoppable. Stroud is 62-for84 passing for 1,002 yards with 14 touchdown passes and no interceptions in his last three games, all blowout wins for the Buckeyes.
He completed 21 of 28 passes Saturday night for 266 yards and four touchdowns before giving way to Kyle McCord in the fourth quarter.
2. Ohio State (6-1, 4-0 Big Ten) went over 500 yards for the sixth consecutive games.
TreVeyon Henderson ran for 81 yards on nine carries while Miyan Williams added 60 yards on eight carries. With Master Teague III and Marcus Crowley unavailable, Isaiah Pryor got most of the second half and finished with 48 yards on 11 carries.
Backups McCord and Jack Miller III combined to complete seven of nine passes for 86 yards in the second half.
Eleven different Buckeyes caught a pass, including Chris Booker, a walk-on transfer from the University of Dayton.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba led the squad with six catches for 99 yards while tight end Jeremy Ruckert caught a pair of touchdown passes.
3. The defensive improvement continued.
This season has been a nightmare for Indiana on offense, and that continued Saturday night.
The Hoosiers put together an impressive 15-play drive for a touchdown on their first possession, but quarterback Jack Tuttle was injured throwing a pass on the final play. His replacements, Donaven McCulley and Grant Gremel, were largely ineffective. They combined to complete four passes for 39 yards.
The Hoosiers finished with 128 total yards, the fewest for an Ohio State opponent this season.
Since giving up over 500 yards in back to back weeks to Oregon and Tulsa, the Ohio State defense has allowed an average of 259.5 yards in its last four games. 4. The defensive line was the main reason.
Indiana overcame a pair of sacks on its touchdown drive, but they Buckeyes’ front kept coming.
Zach Harrison, Ty Hamilton, Tyreke Smith and Haskell Garrett all had sacks while J.T. Tuimolau and Taron Vincent combined on another.
“It was great to see those guys run around a little bit and having fun,” Day said. “It’s good and that’s part of the energy that we want.
The front seven moved the line of scrimmage backward most of the night and frequently had players in the backfield.
The Buckeyes finished with 14 tackles for loss. 5. An incredible streak came to an end while another continued.
Excluding kneeldowns to end halves, Ohio State scored on 19 consecutive possessions with Stroud at quarterback.
The streak started at Rutgers and extended through all of the Maryland game before ending with the first possession of the second half at Indiana.
Ohio State hasn’t lost to Indiana since consecutive defeats in 1987 and ‘88, a winning streak that officially reached 26 games Saturday night.
The Buckeyes lead the alltime series 78-12-5.